from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish
/yoo.shyang hohl fish/, n. obs.
The character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 0001001), which with a loop
in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term
is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole
(not {parse}d) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Usage:
primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this
character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who
hear about it second-hand.
Yu Shiang Whole Fish is alive and well in Unicode as U+0263 LATIN
SMALL LETTER GAMMA (as opposed to the actual Greek letter at U+03B3,
which usually has a loopless glyph; the form of U+0263 is consistently
loopy). This symbol is included in Unicode as a Latin letter because
it is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet. In the IPA, gamma
represents a voiced velar fricative, the sound commonly transcribed
"gh" in Arabic or Klingon.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish
/yoo-shyang hohl fish/ An obsolete name for the Greek
character gamma ({extended SAIL ASCII} code 9, Unicode glyph
0x0263) which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish
swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a
Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not {parse}d)
and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Used
primarily by people on the {MIT} {LISP Machine}, which could
display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit
incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-01-31)